Title: STATE REFORM COALITIONS FOR CHILD ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AT SCHOOL ARE GROWING FORCE
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Section/SPIG: Environment
Issue Date:
FEDERAL INTERAGENCY GROUP ON RISKS TO CHILDREN TO SET SCHOOL AGENDA
Claire Barnett, Executive Director, Healthy Schools Network, cbarnett@healthyschools.org, www.healthyschools.org
(July 30) After federal studies in the 1990's revealed that America's decaying schools were harming an estimated one-third of the 50 million children enrolled in some 115,000 facilities, state-wide task forces or reform coalitions have emerged, focused on improving the conditions of schools. Indoor air quality and more generally indoor environments are a major public health capacity issue in the states and locally; Americans spend 90 percent of their time indoors; there are virtually no standards for indoor air, and no agency is clearly responsible for child environmental health at school. Building on the example of New York State, nonprofit networks in Massachusetts, Illinois, Connecticut, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, Vermont, and the District of Columbia are promoting policy reforms for school indoor environments and providing information to parents, schools, and personnel. The groups are collaborating on IAQ information and most have worked to secure Integrated Pest Management (IPM) legislation to reduce children's exposures in schools.
"Healthy and High Performance Schools": Jump-Starts Federal Agencies and New Federaly Strategy
With APHA support, advocates secured the enactment of 'Healthy and High Performance Schools' features in federal education law in 2002. Federal agencies jumped to promote healthier indoor environments at school. Most significantly, the U.S. Department of Education hired a consulting group to lay the ground work for a study on the impacts of decayed schools on child health and learning. Education is required to report to Congress on its findings. EPA and Education then developed a one-stop, crosslinked website for healthy school environments. In the works is a federal strategy on school environments being developed by a 'schools committee' within the President's Interagency Task Force on Risks to Child Health, a committee co-chaired by EPA, CDC and education. CDC led a federal investigation of the outbreak of school rashes last year, and reported outbreaks in over 100 schools in 27 states that began before 9/11. Last year, APHA published "Schools of Ground Zero," a documentary report in children's environmental health, from the morning of 9/11 through the re-occupancy of contaminated schools. While NIOSH could protect school personnel, no agency could intervene for children.
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